Bill Bennett: Tech commentator on emerging Twitter/X alternative Bluesky

Twitter/X alternative Bluesky has emerged as the next big trend in social media.

Around 21 million people have signed up for the app, which has seen a large spike in users signing up for it since the US election.

Tech commentator Bill Bennett joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right at the moment, let's talk about what's going on
with social media. So apparently the latest thing on social
media is the thing called Blue Sky. It's like an
alternative to Twitter. If you don't like Twitter anymore, then
you can migrate yourself over to Blue Sky have a
nice time with people who feel the same as you
do about Donald Trump's election and Elon Musk and so on.
And apparently it's hit about twenty one million people using it.
Tech commentator Bill Bennett has been checking it out and

(00:22):
is with us. Hey Bill, Hi, any good?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yeah? Yeah, it's really like old school Twitter, going back
sort of five or six years before Elon was involved,
and again a bit before that as well, and it's
very similar. It's got the same sort of vibe. It
looks a lot like Twitter. But there's a reason why
it looks a lot like Twitter, and that is because
it's actually a Twitter side project. It was started by
the people at Twitter. They were in effect rewriting the products,

(00:52):
and not long before Elon Must took it over. It's
spun off as a separate business, which is kind of
fortunate for them, I suppose, given the way things turned out.
So it's it's really got that kind of old Twitter
vibe to it. It's not but it's not like Twitter
in a number of really quite important ways. One thing
is that if someone's annoying, if you're they're bothering, if

(01:15):
you're a woman and you're getting adrow from a bloke,
you can just block them. You can just completely block
them and you don't have to hear from them, and
they don't hear from you. And you can't do that
on Twitter anymore. If you're you know, if someone's bullying
on Twitter, you've got to put up with it. But
you don't on Blue Sky. The other thing is is
that Twitter will decide what it thinks you should see.

(01:38):
So if you're actually still on Twitter, you'll see an
awful lot of what Elon has to say his baby.
You don't on Blue Sky. You choose what you get
to see. You don't get someone else decide.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Like old school Twitter. Yeah yeah, okay, So I mean
this kind of thing kind of lives or dies based
on whether you get enough famous pop. We've got a
few international famous people, got any famous Kiwis on it?

Speaker 2 (02:05):
I don't think I've seen anyone who recognizable yet. There's
certain you certainly don't see any famous sports people on there.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Is what's going to work or is this going to
go the way of Threads?

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Well, it's interesting at the moment. It's got twenty one million,
as you say, that's probably about a tent for what
Twitter has. Threads would have more today than that. But
Threads is kind of It's got lots of people there,
but it's tumbleweed rolling down the street if you go there,
and Blue Sky is anxiety. But the thing is, I

(02:37):
don't think it's ever going to be another Twitter in
that it's going to be something everyone goes to. I
think you're going to see a fragmented market with different
different social media platforms to people, you know, with different
vibes and different groups of people.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Interesting stuff. Bill, thanks very much, really appreciate it. It's
Bill Bennett tick commentator. Hither I just had to look
at Blue Sky, let's say, or not be going there.
I'm not on Twitter either, But the rubbish from the
love on there is ridiculous. This is not altogether a
good thing that this is happening, by the way. I mean,
like Twitter is horrible. You know that We've discussed that
a million times. But if you're gonna have If you're
just gonna have Twitter now populated by a bunch of

(03:11):
right wingers, and then you have gonna you're gonna have
Blue Sky populated by a bunch of left wingers, that's
not really that's just driving people into the echo chambers. Right,
You're supposed to all hang out in the same place
so you can share ideas and not go further and
further into your corner. But anyway, whatever, this is the
way the world is going. I suppose For more from

(03:31):
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